Monday, April 20, 2009

Sachiko wins Jaja Uma; NEO/JWP in Kyushu

This past weekend seemed to be "roadtrip" week in joshi, as many of the active joshi groups held shows outside of Tokyo.

WAVE had a show at Shin-Kiba during the middle of the week. They are still playing around with the DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship. It has changed hands several times between Cherry, Bullfight Sora, Moeka Haruhi, and Toshie Uematsu, with Toshie being the current holder. They went to Sapporo's Teisen Hall on Sunday, with the team of Jaguar Yokota, Uematsu, and Ran Yu-Yu defeating GAMI, Yumi Ohka, and KAORU as Toshie rolled up GAMI and kept the comedy belt. Fortunately Jaguar decided not to sully herself by trying to win the belt that small children, ladders, women dressed as cows, and Toshie's dad have all carried.

NEO is doing a mini-tour of Kyushu. Sunday saw them at Hakata Star Lanes. I hear Kyoko Inoue can really convert those spares! The actual show saw the return of NEO's injured youngsters, as Nagisa Nozaki (knee) and Nozomi Dai (eye) are back. They did the obvious jobs in lower card matches. The Passion Red 3 (Nanae Takahashi, Natsuki*Taiyo, Kana) had a draw with the Revolucion Amandola heels (Kyoko Kimura, Atsuko Emoto, Tomoka Nakagawa). The soon-to-retire Haruka Matsuo ate a Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex from Manami Toyota, and the main saw Big Momma Kyoko Inoue and Hiroyo Matsumoto defend the NEO tag titles against Yoshiko Tamura & Ayumi Kurihara. In a mild surprise, it was Yoshiko and not Ayumi eating the Niagara Driver from Kyoko. Tamura does get to challenge Nanae for the NEO/NWA Pacific singles championships next month and I guess Big Momma could be the first challenger if Tamura dethrones Takahashi.

JWP also was at Hakata Star Lanes. Now that Command Bolshoi had rid JWP of Yumiko Hotta's toxic presence, the main heel is Kyoko Kimura. Fukuoka is champion Kayoko Haruyama's hometown, and she got a happy homecoming as she teamed up with Bolshoi and Kaori Yoneyama to beat Azumi Hyuga, Tsubasa Kuragaki, and Aja Kong. Kuragaki got to taste the Keene Hammer. Then Kimura showed up to flip everyone off and talk trash. Kimura is getting a title shot in July and will probably torture the JWP mid-carders (I'm talking to you, Leon and Yoneyama) until then.

Sendai Girls were, well, in Sendai. Sunday saw the culmination of the Jaja Uma tournament for young wrestlers. The semifinals were a Senjo vs Ibuki affair and Senjo was supreme today. Ryo Mizunami beat Esui with her Shoulder Lock submission and Sendai Sachiko threw one of her textbook suplexes on Misaki Ohata, who has been clashing with Sachiko's sister DASH Chisako. In the semi-main event, Yukari Ishino teamed with her sensei Meiko Satomura and got the first pin of her career, over Ice Ribbon's Minori Makiba (who was with BattlARTS' Chihiro Oikawa). In a mild upset, Sachiko won the tournament, landing a moonsault and then another German to defeat the bigger Mizunami. Sendai Girls will be in Niigata, not Sendai, on May 10th for Meiko's homecoming show and the 10th singles encounter against Aja Kong. One could make a decent comp just out of Meiko vs Aja.

Ito Dojo stayed home in Tokyo. The main theme was the send-off for Ayako Hamada, who will be leaving for America and the wacky world of Total Nonstop Action. Hamada and Kaoru Ito defeated Sonoko Kato and Harley Saito, with the veteran from LLPW losing to Ayako's AP Cross. Two impromptu matches followed. First, a time limit draw between the Ito Dojo veterans vs Ito Dojo youngsters. Finally Papa Hamada showed up, made Ayako cry, and then made her tap out. Awwwwwww, the family that wrestles together stays together.